Big turnout expected for Blue Angels next weekend

Sunday

Mar 29, 2009 at 12:01 AM

The U.S. Navy’s famed Blue Angels flight team will be in Tuscaloosa next weekend. And it’s going to be big.

By Stephanie Taylor,Staff Writer

The U.S. Navy’s famed Blue Angels flight team will be in Tuscaloosa next weekend. And it’s going to be big.Officials are expecting tens of thousands of people to attend the show at the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport next Saturday and Sunday.Mayor Walt Maddox said more than 100,000 people could be in attendance.“We will be in game day mode beginning Wednesday leading up to the events Saturday and Sunday,” he said.More than 400 hotel rooms have been booked to accommodate performers and crews alone, he said. Late last week, more than $80,000 in reserved tickets had already been sold to the show, which will also have free seating. People from as far away as Indiana have purchased tickets online, he said.The Blue Angels selected Tuscaloosa was one of 36 sites chosen from among 300 interested in hosting the Blue Angels, which will perform 70 shows in their 2009 season. “We truly didn’t anticipate being able to land the Blue Angels this year. It’s very rare that a first-time applicant acquires the Blue Angels,” Maddox said.Through what the mayor called relentless efforts by Tuscaloosa Department of Transportation director Tera Wyatt, airport manager Wayne Cameron and consultant David Schultz, the Blue Angels visited Tuscaloosa during Iron Bowl weekend in November.“We were able to show them our capability to host a large event,” he said. “And they were able to see the excite ment in the air.”

Tuscaloosa Air Show Special Section

In addition to the Blue Angels, there will be performances by the U.S. Army’s Golden Knights parachute team and several demonstration groups during the all-day airshow that begins at 9 a.m. each day. There will be fighter jet flybys, displays of aircraft and interactive attractions, such as a Humvee simulator for people older than 14.Tuscaloosa is paying half of the $200,000 cost, which includes the performers’ fees and Schultz’s fee to manage the show. Northport and Tuscaloosa County are covering the remaining costs. Millions of dollars are expected to be spent in restaurants and stores in Tuscaloosa and Northport over the weekend.Robert Ratliff, executive director of the Tuscaloosa Convention and Visitors Bureau, said his agency has received a lot of feedback from ads placed in magazines and on Web sites across the Southeast. “We’ve gotten calls every day,” he said. “I think that the crowd is going to be tremendous. They have a huge following.”Ratliff attended a Blue Angels show in Huntsville last year and said he had to watch from a parking lot from across the street because so many people were at the site.“This is going to be a huge event for our area,” he said.